Encountering Students in the Real World, part 1.5

Here begins (sort of) a new tag, wherein I discuss encountering my students OUTSIDE of schools. It's a scary, scary thing, but something that all teachers and substitute teachers must be prepared for. What happens, dear friends, when you are at CVS in your sweatpants, bleary-eyed and hungover, looking for some aspirin to help you out... when there! Behind the check-out counter! Scanning all your most private purchases! Is. your. student.

I'm just saying, it happens every so often.

Today's episode of Encountering Students in the Real World is actually listed as 1.5, because the actual 1st Encounter happened before I made a nifty tag for it. You can read about that experience, which was a pleasant one, here.

The 1.5 edition follows.

Welcome. Please don't come again.

A week or two ago, I was working at my restaurant job when a student and her mother show up for dinner. They were in my section, too. I was prepared to pretend that I had never seen the student, but of course she is a really sweet girl and enthusiastically pronounced, "OH! I know you! You sub at my school!!" Yes, and now I'm serving you food. Nice to see you again. Have you been doing your homework? Didn't you like your appetizer? Blech.

What's even more awkward is the fact that her mother felt obligated to engage me in small talk after that, akin to "do you sub in specific classrooms? Do you sub at other schools?" Really, there's not much to say about a sub job (snarky blogging aside), so I didn't feel like the small talk went over that well. I just tried to be enthusiastic. Yes! I have a highly unrewarding job babysitting your child during the day! Oh, yes, it's a blast! Obviously it works out so well for me that I get to have a second job waiting tables at night; aren't I lucky?!

But they did tip well.